Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be multiple-access systems capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code-division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time-division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency-division multiple access (FDMA) systems, and orthogonal frequency-division multiple access (OFDMA) systems.
Generally, a wireless multiple-access communications system may include a number of base stations, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple wireless devices. Base stations may communicate with wireless devices on downstream and upstream links. Each base station has a coverage range, which may be referred to as the coverage area of the cell. In cellular networks, both uplink and downlink channel conditions can vary unpredictably over time. These fluctuations may be influenced by channel fades, shadowing changes, sector load changes, interference, transmitter power, scheduler dynamics, and other factors. Such fluctuations may detrimentally affect the rate at which data can be transmitted over the channels.
Wireless device applications often rely on data transmitted to and from cellular networks, and changing channel conditions may affect the operations of the applications. While wireless device applications may implement different techniques to compensate for reduced rates of data transmission, often a wireless device application is unaware of deteriorating channel conditions until after the user experience of the mobile application has suffered. Thus, there is an ongoing need in the art to provide solutions for applications to quickly and efficiently obtain information about wireless channel conditions.